The present invention relates to an RF (radio frequency) coil and an MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) apparatus, and particularly to an RF coil comprising a plurality of concentric loops lying at different positions along a coil axis, and an MRI apparatus comprising such an RF coil.
An RF coil is used for transmission, reception or both of RF signals in an MRI apparatus. One conventionally employed form of the RF coil is one comprising a plurality of concentric loops lying at different positions along a coil axis (for example, see Patent Document 1).
[Patent Document 1] Japanese Patent Application Laid Open No. 2003-38459 (Page 5, FIG. 1).
The RF coil with such a configuration in which a plurality of loops are simultaneously used has reduced combined sensitivity in the middle between adjacent loops. If an imaging center lies at such a position, the resulting image has a poor SNR (signal-to-noise ratio) in the central portion.